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Does everyone understand that no matter what the formula was, nobody was going to know the official cap number until sometime this summer? Last year, the NHL and NHLPA announced it's cap hit for the 2011-12 season on June 23rd 2011, giving it's GMs just over 4 months to prepare for the 2011-12 schedule.

By no means did I ever mean to imply that our salary cap ceiling and floor would mirror the NHL's dollar for dollar. That was never in the cards given that our cap hit only affects a 19 man roster. I apologize if I worded the rules poorly which may have suggested as such.

This salary cap formula is not a rule change. It is simply a definition to a rule that hasn't been addressed thus far. It is now being addressed just under 8 months prior to next season, though it is still just a heads up of what we might expect. And all of our GMs will have all offseason to address their cap needs given this new information, however any assumptions made on the next cap hit prior to the time that it is official, is solely the responsible of each individual GM.

Going into another CBA drawing board this summer and surmising that you had 65 million to play with next season, is an unfounded assumption, no matter what the formula was going to be. So I don't personally feel any responsibility in blindsiding anyone.

There is a long way to go yet to have your team in cap compliance for next season. And there is still plenty of time before any of us know exactly what that final figure is going to be. This is definitely not something anyone needs to worry about prior to the trade deadline freeze on February 28th.

That's where I'm at. The cap is what it is and part of what makes this league so challenging but I agree with Imber that if the NHL cap goes up and ours goes down, that really doesn't seem right.

That's where I'm at. The cap is what it is and part of what makes this league so challenging but I agree with Imber that if the NHL cap goes up and ours goes down, that really doesn't seem right.

I'd like everyone to understand that the formula I have come up with has been carefully thought out.

This inaugural season saw a cap ceiling of $60M. The number was chosen arbitrarily. The only thought process behind that number, was that it was just several million dollars short of the NHL cap ceiling, which made sense since the active roster that would be affected by it, was several players shy of an actual NHL roster. However, being an inaugural season, we had to expect that it was an experiment going forward.

Once we got through our summer long draft, the majority of the league decided to keep their personal cap hits much closer to the floor rather than the ceiling. Perhaps that had to do with our collective love of prospects, or perhaps it had to do with the fact that overpriced busts and expensive stay at home defenders have little fantasy value. Either way, we can all recall one team that was struggling with keeping below the ceiling (due to an unforgiving autodraft), owned by an absentee owner. Given that the cap balance in the league was majorly bottom-heavy, the trade table was significantly affected. Many of our players had a tough time getting to the bottom of the floor, given that so few GMs had expendable players with cap hits to spare. Once that one absentee owner was replaced, this alleviated the problem somewhat.

In order to determine a suitable cap figure for our league, efforts were needed to be made in order to balance out the league cap. Relying solely on NHL inflation/deflation does not address a league who's majority prefer to spend beneath the half way point between the ceiling and the floor. It also does not address all the NHL players that earn paychecks in the real world that prove to provide no worth to our GMs.

Having now acquired some hard numbers to play with, we can see where our experiment (arbitrary cap number) passes and fails. We can monitor the trends of our league's GMs and account for these trends, while not ignoring real-world inflation either. When this league balances out cap wise, we can then expect our cap to rise and fall with the NHL's. But before we get to that point, we need a cap figure that makes sense for our league. And that cap number will not involve our GMs leaving millions of dollars on the table.

Having looked at a hypothetical calculation via use of this formula, it appears that if there is a decline in cap ceilings and floors, it will not be a dramatic one. The numbers are put together so that they can correct themselves year after year. And I would suspect that this next change in cap hit will be the biggest anomaly of them all, given that we have gone from picking an experimental arbitrarily chosen number, to a figure that can be calculated by using real statistical data.

As someone understanding both sides, I just want to point out a couple things to keep in mind:

We're noticing each year that salaries are getting more lucrative. Edmonton media sources for example are indicating that Hemsky will be asking for a 5+ mil deal for minimum 4 years. Last off-season was a real jump forward in terms of overpayment as we say the likes of Ville Leino get 4.5 mil, and Bryzgalov get 7 mil.

I don't want to turn this into 'all about me', but I have the likes of JRV, Duchene, Erik Johnson, Perron AND Stewart all prepared for big raises this offseason. I'm not complaining as I am fully prepared for it, and have equipped my team for it, but the point I'm trying to make is that I would wager alot of teams will be having multiple players coming off their entry level contracts this season.

As someone understanding both sides, I just want to point out a couple things to keep in mind:

We're noticing each year that salaries are getting more lucrative. Edmonton media sources for example are indicating that Hemsky will be asking for a 5+ mil deal for minimum 4 years. Last off-season was a real jump forward in terms of overpayment as we say the likes of Ville Leino get 4.5 mil, and Bryzgalov get 7 mil.

I don't want to turn this into 'all about me', but I have the likes of JRV, Duchene, Erik Johnson, Perron AND Stewart all prepared for big raises this offseason. I'm not complaining as I am fully prepared for it, and have equipped my team for it, but the point I'm trying to make is that I would wager alot of teams will be having multiple players coming off their entry level contracts this season.

And that was how they planned their draft - so they know they will be pushing the cap limit in a year or two after having scraped the floor for the first year or two. Granted, with LS' formula and enough teams with this strategy, it would be one year of benching one or two high salary players before the cap would surge up and make room.

Once we got through our summer long draft, the majority of the league decided to keep their personal cap hits much closer to the floor rather than the ceiling. Perhaps that had to do with our collective love of prospects, or perhaps it had to do with the fact that overpriced busts and expensive stay at home defenders have little fantasy value. Either way, we can all recall one team that was struggling with keeping below the ceiling (due to an unforgiving autodraft), owned by an absentee owner. Given that the cap balance in the league was majorly bottom-heavy, the trade table was significantly affected. Many of our players had a tough time getting to the bottom of the floor, given that so few GMs had expendable players with cap hits to spare. Once that one absentee owner was replaced, this alleviated the problem somewhat.

I think the formula you've created should work. However, I think future seasons will see owners straying closer and closer to the ceiling. Those that chose to build by drafting prospects this year will look to reap some of those rewards next year and acquire more expensive and productive talent in an effort to win each year. Therefore, my only caution would be to not read too much into this year's average cap numbers.

I think the other reason everyone was close to the floor is that most of the owners were more willing to take gambles on low-priced players vs. high-priced players. Having an albatross contract on your roster with a player that's doing little to justify it (either in fantasy or real life) is much harder to work around than a player with a lower cost contract that's doing just as little. Going into season two, our teams are set so it will be much more difficult to do that.

I've been reading through this thread basically since it was fired up but have yet to comment.

I figure at this point I may as well chip in with my 2-cents.

I don't mind the formula. It is good to know the method that will be used to determine the salary cap. Would it have been nice to have that formula in October when the season started? Sure. Would it have been possible? Probably not without some form of concrete data for it to be based off of.

I am totally cool with this if LS decides to move forward with it. It certainly seems like the most fair way to manage any cap fluctuation within this league.

I think the formula you've created should work. However, I think future seasons will see owners straying closer and closer to the ceiling. Those that chose to build by drafting prospects this year will look to reap some of those rewards next year and acquire more expensive and productive talent in an effort to win each year. Therefore, my only caution would be to not read too much into this year's average cap numbers.

I think the other reason everyone was close to the floor is that most of the owners were more willing to take gambles on low-priced players vs. high-priced players. Having an albatross contract on your roster with a player that's doing little to justify it (either in fantasy or real life) is much harder to work around than a player with a lower cost contract that's doing just as little. Going into season two, our teams are set so it will be much more difficult to do that.

I agree with you completely that I expect to see a change in cap averages over time. But given this formula, that trending change will always have it's affect on the next cap ceiling number.

Having a cap solely tied to actual NHL revenue and ignoring what is being deemed valuable in our fantasy game, would be a glaring mistake for our league, IMO. So tying the cap figure to both trending statistical date from our game, along with real life inflation costs of actual NHL contracts, makes absolute sense to me.

With all of that said, this heads up may prove to be a moot point. Cause I for one am not sure what to expect with the league's cap numbers once the CBA has it's say in this. The only thing I feel safe in believing, is that we will not be experiencing a work stoppage next season. Everything else however, is up in the air at this point.

As far as I'm concerned this is a blessing. There are a ton of teams in this league that are so close to the cap floor that it makes it impossible for them to deal. If this opens up trading a bit more and makes things easier to manage, I'm all for it.

Know this isn't the right thread, but it's about rule changes for next season.

Next year can we make our deadline 24hrs after the NHL one? Doesn't affect me this year as I'm not hugely trading, but the extra day gives us a few extra hours to process real life moves that could impact our teams here

I agree with you completely that I expect to see a change in cap averages over time. But given this formula, that trending change will always have it's affect on the next cap ceiling number.

Having a cap solely tied to actual NHL revenue and ignoring what is being deemed valuable in our fantasy game, would be a glaring mistake for our league, IMO. So tying the cap figure to both trending statistical date from our game, along with real life inflation costs of actual NHL contracts, makes absolute sense to me.

With all of that said, this heads up may prove to be a moot point. Cause I for one am not sure what to expect with the league's cap numbers once the CBA has it's say in this. The only thing I feel safe in believing, is that we will not be experiencing a work stoppage next season. Everything else however, is up in the air at this point.

The NHL could very well see it's cap figures decline.

The LSHA probably will have to lower it's cap ceiling by a couple million and possibly even the floor or just leave the floor where it is. This is because the lack of a salaried backup goalie and a full 23 man NHL roster as you alluded to has made it very difficult for most owners to get significantly over the cap min. I for one drafted too young simply because of my style and in return had to deal just about every prospect and pick I had to acquire higher priced vets. Thats the price I have to pay for screwing up the draft. But even still I am nowhere near the 60 mil cap ceiling and I acquired a considerable amount of salary over the year. I added at least 7 million if not more in the process.

The one thing that may render it moot is of course RFA's. But I am still curious to see how that plays out. I will have several players renegotiating deals for expected higher prices but I am not sure the fluctuation will be that big for most teams and the benefit will be there for the League on as a whole as the few owners who actually do have high cap will have to shed a body or two which will easily be absorbed by the plethora of cap floor clinging clubs.

So it may behoove the League to just lower the actual cap ceiling to a larger deviation from the NHL cap. Perhaps 5 mil or more. Then either leave the floor at 47mil where it is or lower it another mil or two.

Another option might be to have all players on a roster count towards the cap entirely. Meaning all bench players will count. This would allow the League to just apply the actual NHL cap without worry or even increase it a tad as most bench players have low salaries but would allow every club to gain at least several million in cap thus alowing for more trade flexibility.

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